Thoughts of a Railway Builder

My desire to own a model railway started whilst playing with my Fathers Triang equipment in the living room of our flat in North London. Watching Princess Elizabeth charge around a large oval of track trailing 6 maroon MK1 coaches is something I will never forget. To me it was poetry in motion.

Every Christmas and Birthday I would ask for my own train set but my parents were not well off and the call went unanswered until I was about 10 years old and on Christmas morning I opened a large box to find a model of Britannia complete with 2 coaches and an oval of track.

That set saw some use in the few years I had it. Unfortunately when my room was decorated whilst I was in Spain when I was 19 the loco and coaches were accidentally thrown in the rubbish and my fledgling layout, actually a shelf on my bedroom wall, was also thrown away.

It was not until after I was married that I finally started an N gauge layout, spurred on by my Boss at British telecom whose layout I helped operate at exhibitions, and found room for it in our first home.

The end of that layout was the birth of my daughter and the need for the spare room to become hers. The layout was bundled into the loft and, as far as I know, it is still there. The stock was all sold off and now there were several years when I did nothing related to model railways mainly due to bringing up two daughters.

It was about 13 years ago that we moved into our present home and I wasted no time in building a 16mm gauge line in the back garden.

The original Merrytwit Light Railway

 This lasted a few years and saw sporadic use. It was eventually removed are replaced by a OO gauge line called the Sitton Watchet railway.

Sitton Watchet Railway freshly completed.

This line lasted several years but stayed the same double track loop despite plans to extend it.

It lasted until spring 2013 when rot and water damage rendered it unusable without rather extensive repairs. I considered this and finally decided to go back to 16mm scale and also to build something more substantial that would also blend in with the garden. So Merrytwit Light Railway MK 2 was started.

So far, due to a beautiful summer that saw us out and about, lack of money and little time has ensured that progress is painfully slow. Currently I have a pit built of blocks half full of concrete plus a lot of ideas.

Hopefully the current spell of wet weather will break and I will be able to get the station area (the aforementioned block pit) completed and track down with the rest of the line following soon after. I would like to at least get a working loop up and going before my 50th birthday in April.

Oh well, back to dreaming again.